Madonna - Madame X (2019)

She's playing new stuff almost exclusively, which for a person at her stage of celebrity at this point in her career is radical.

yes, absolutely. and it's such a unique show. "concert" doesn't quite cover it. it was beautiful. and she was in really, really good voice.

We went the second night. Things felt a little rough around the edges, and her extended breaks to talk to the crowd were a momentum killer, but the high points were stunning (audience wide "whoa's" during "Frozen" and "Fado Pechincha." The staging was deceptively simple-looking but really good - the lighting/projection mapping during "Human Nature" reminded me of Fantasia's beginning. More no-phone shows everywhere please.

Setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/madonna/2019/bam-howard-gilman-opera-house-brooklyn-ny-339ce0dd.html

Batuka
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Fado Pechincha
(Isabel De Oliveira cover)
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Killers Who Are Partying
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Crazy
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La Isla Bonita
(with “Welcome to My Fado Club” improvised song)
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Sodade
(Cesária Évora cover)
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Medellín
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Extreme Occident

^^ holy shit

seeing here in SF. I've actually never seen her before so this seemed like a good way to finally do it.

I'm just happy she's doing Frozen which is one of my favorite songs. I can't say I'm enthralled by the new album but it's a far bit better than her last few from the limited exposure I've had to them.

so saw this last night. evening marred a bit by one of the people we went with who is super high maintenance not liking 1) the phone situation 2) the theater's accomodation for disabled people (she has a foot in a boot right now, so she had a point, but there wasn't much to be done) 3) the late start 4) the heat. The heat in the theater was a legitmate point but she wound up leaving early because of it; apparently Madonna wants it over 80 degrees in the theater for her voice, the theater didn't even pump it as high as she wanted. So it was pretty muggy. All that drama aside: this show was pretty fucking impressive. The set pieces and choreography are great, and the new songs really come across better like this than they do on the album. There are a LOT of long parts where madonna just sits on the stage and yammers and rambles though, which is to take up the time to change the set dressing behind a screen, and that goes over well depending on your tolerance for her increasingly lewd Aunt humor. Madonna herself is looking a little stiff moving around but frankly I couldn't do that for 2.5 hours so I shouldn't talk. And, there are a few moments in this show that are completely transcendent, particularly Frozen, which she sings behind a translucent screen that shows a large dance routine by Lourdes (whoI should note is unbelievably beautiful), it was one of the best things I've ever seen on a stage. Fun night all around even if it didn't start until after 11pm and our guest was...difficult.

counterpoint: I wish she'd lay off the autotune effect; it's tiresome on the album and unnecessary live since she can sing perfectly fine so I don't know why she is so reliant on it these days. to my ear it doesn't even sound current, it sounds dated.

(she only uses it on the songs from the new album that have it though, it's not all over the older songs; but there are only a few of those anyway)

Can’t say I even tried with the album as none of the tracks I heard appealed to me (I’m not counting the Blaya cover). But I’m here for the Honey Dijon remixes for “I Don’t Search I Find”. This is the “CLUBMIX” but the actual “Remix” is great too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP2JyvzcSiI

From last night in London I think?

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B8Tcni4hu5Y/

thanks eminem

i still regularly think about how wild this album gets in places. i really hope she goes all the way with that for her next album